L.A. Guns brought their 20th Anniversary Tour to The Blue Note in Cincinnati, Ohio last Thursday Night. A couple of bands Session 9, and A Nervous Wreck opened the show, and got the crowd revved for Phil Lewis and company. This night started to look as if it was going to be the third live music debacle of 2008. The band Z02 were supposed to open for L.A. Guns, but cancelled the day before the show. I was looking forward to seeing this band play live for weeks, so their cancellation came as a disappointment. This was the only thing disppapointing on Thursday Night.

L.A. Guns, featuring Phil Lewis on vocals, Stacey Blades on guitar, Scott Griffin on bass, and Steve Riley on drums, hit the stage at around 11 P.M. and played for a little over an hour. The set contained most of the band’s hits including: Sex Action, Over the Edge, One More Reason, Never Enough, Kiss My Love Goodbye, The Ballad of Jayne, Rip and Tear, Hellraiser’s Ball, and Gypsy Soul.

It was an extremely tight set, and the band seemed to be in top form all night. This is the second time I have seen L.A. Guns over the last few months (you can read about the first show here), but it was definitely the best out of the two shows I have seen.

Phil Lewis still sounds as good as he did 20 years ago. Stacey Blades is an outstanding guitar player. As a whole, L.A Guns still rocks and does it well! The Phil Lewis led L.A. Guns continues to prove that their is only one band that deserves to use the L.A. Guns name. The best one played in Cincinnati Thursday night. The 150 – 200 people that were there for the show, saw a very good night of rock. The turn out for this show was exceptional for a bitter cold Thursday night.

Special thanks to J.T. from Class X Radio for the ticket for this show, and to Paul at TransFusion Productions for bringing L.A. Guns back to the Queen City.